{"id":1890,"date":"2015-02-25T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-26T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.willclower.com\/blog\/2015\/02\/.html"},"modified":"2016-09-19T11:10:39","modified_gmt":"2016-09-19T15:10:39","slug":"1890","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=1890","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n
Dear Will,<\/span><\/div>\n
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My family has always been health conscious and we try to do the right thing for our health \u2013 because it\u2019s important!\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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But I\u2019m getting mixed messages from the news when I hear about supplements. Are there some that are better than others?<\/span><\/div>\n
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Thank you for your help \u2026 Health Conscious<\/span><\/div>\n
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Follow @willclower<\/a><\/p>\n

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Dear Health Conscious,<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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I want to make this very clear. The weight of research evidence is not looking good for dietary supplements! And this, I think, is what causes the confusion as the health claims run headlong into the health data. So let\u2019s just look at a bit of that. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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<\/a><\/div>\n
First of all, the best source of your nutrition comes from food. That\u2019s just common sense. The body has adapted to the food grown on this planet for the past few billion years of evolution.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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And it would be a logical absurdity to presume the perfect fit between food and physiology could be bettered by some invention we came up with over the past few decades. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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We\u2019re just not that smart. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Of course, that\u00a0<\/span>doesn’t<\/span>\u00a0stop us from trying to convince others that nutritional supplements must be a\u00a0healthful solution. Unfortunately the health claims lead the health data. For example \u2026<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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\"pills.jpg\"<\/a><\/div>\n
Does glucosamine and chondroitin work for joint pain? <\/span>Not for the knee<\/span><\/span><\/a> (<\/span>here\u2019s another<\/span><\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/div>\n
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Do vitamin B supplements help heal the arteries of your heart? <\/span>Not at all.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
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Do supplemental vitamins C and E help prevent cancer? In this massive <\/span>randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Physicians’ Health Study II, an amazing 14,641 male physicians aged 50 years or older were given vitamin C and E supplements.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Neither provided <\/span>any protection whatsoever<\/span><\/span><\/a> against cancer, despite the fact that foods with vitamin C and E are protective.<\/span><\/div>\n
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But what about the multivitamins? Do they help you stay healthy? <\/span>Not for your heart and not for cancer prevention<\/span><\/span><\/a>. Not, not, not.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This amazing lack of effect is only now getting significant attention from regulators. In fact, a FDA investigation of herbal supplements randomly tested 78 supplement bottles at Walgreens, Walmart, GNC and Target stores. They found that 80% of did not even contain the ingredients advertised on their labels.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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<\/a>What did they contain? According to the report, in many cases they consisted of powdered rice, wheat, and ground-up houseplants.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Seriously. Ground up houseplants.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Even if they were pure which, 80% of the time they are just not, ginkgo biloba supplements carried a claim that the products supported \u201cconcentration, memory and peripheral circulation, enhancing blood flow to the arms, legs and brain.\u201d There is no evidence for this. At GNC, a line of saw palmetto supplements promised to \u201csupport healthy prostate function.\u201d There is no evidence for this either. And Walmart\u2019s Spring Valley brand of echinacea supplements were promoted for \u201chealthy immune function.\u201d Evidence? Nope.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Maybe the ground up houseplants just aren\u2019t that effective for anything much, with the exception perhaps of selling fraudulent claims to unsuspecting customers.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/a>But supplements can also be dangerous. <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
The common supplements above may have been irrelevant to better health for the men, but for pregnant women they turned out to make <\/span>pregnancy complications of high blood pressure<\/span><\/span><\/a> 10% worse! <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
The Cancer Institute recently reported that exposure to supplements such as vitamins, herbs, protein powders, and botanicals were responsible for more than 35,000 calls to US poison control centers in 2011.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Over 800 of them had moderate to severe outcomes, and 4 people died. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Even this alarming incidence is likely a strong underestimate of the actual health toll taken by supplements, as most people won\u2019t actually call a poison control center.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Those on chemotherapy are at a much higher risk of unexpected drug interactions with dietary supplements and should consult their doctor about any they are taking. But even this may not be enough, as the lack of regulatory oversight has allowed some supplement makers to insert <\/span>dangerous additional drugs<\/span><\/a>in their formulas that are completely unlabeled (Reumofan, the all \u201cnatural\u201d Mexican supplement for pain relief). <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
Bottom line?<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
If you\u2019re sick, take your meds. Don\u2019t be silly. But if you have a relatively normal physiology and your body\u2019s not broken yet, your best source of nutrition comes from the foods that are\u00a0<\/span>here precisely because of the optimal nutrition they provide for our body.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
For more information: <\/span> Click here to visit Will Clower’s website.<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Will, \u00a0 My family has always been health conscious and we try to do the right thing for our health \u2013 because it\u2019s important!\u00a0 \u00a0 But I\u2019m getting mixed … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[494,281,256],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-ask-will","category-supplements"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s7Qv5g-1890","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12321,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=12321","url_meta":{"origin":1890,"position":0},"title":"The Most Overlooked Issue For Mens Health","author":"Will Clower","date":"May 16, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The biggest un-seen heath issue for men is not a physical ailment at all.","rel":"","context":"In "Brain Health"","block_context":{"text":"Brain Health","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?cat=597"},"img":{"alt_text":"Depression Concept brain raining in box","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Depression-Concept-brain-raining-in-box.png?fit=1018%2C1018&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Depression-Concept-brain-raining-in-box.png?fit=1018%2C1018&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Depression-Concept-brain-raining-in-box.png?fit=1018%2C1018&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Depression-Concept-brain-raining-in-box.png?fit=1018%2C1018&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8053,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=8053","url_meta":{"origin":1890,"position":1},"title":"Your Gut Health: Probiotic vs Prebiotic?","author":"Will Clower","date":"March 9, 2020","format":"image","excerpt":"When reading about gut health, you will almost certainly come across the terms \u201cprobiotic\u201d and \u201cprebiotic\u201d. What is the difference between them? Probiotics:\u00a0These are live bacteria found in the lining of your gut that are very important for overall health. 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